Spells of Midnight
by Phayte
Summary: A charming little story, waffy, good for depressing, rainy days-LG (has alternate ending
1. Story

**Disclaimer** Don't own, sorry, but the story's still kinda good, maybe....  
  
(~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~) indicates where alternate ending begins  
  
Lina sat hunched over a desk, several candles lit about the room making for good light to read by, which was half of what he was doing. Scratching echoed in the silent room in the absence of thunder clashing outside as a storm raged outside. Lina had tuned the whole storm out since it had begun. Donning her reading glasses, she'd found a book in this little town worth taking a look at, and since early that evening, she'd been taking notes and tending to the fire burning merrily in her room of the surprisingly luxurious inn.  
  
Thunder crashed outside and Lina smirked, almost as if daring L-sama herself to try and challenge the great Sorceress Supreme.  
  
Rather suddenly, a strange rapping on the door happened and Lina jumped just as she was dipping her quill into the ink well. Raven black ink made a small puddle on the parchment she was writing on. She cursed as more knocking came and grabbed a white kerchief. "Hang on a second," was her non-to-gentle reply to even more knocking as she made an attempt to blot up the spilled ink, winding up with a black dot where she had been copying a spell down. "The parchment was expensive! Ergh!" She cursed loudly.  
  
Lifting the cloth to eye-level, she was no looking at an almost black kerchief, Lina sunk, "Piece of junk, used to be silk, was gonna sell it."  
  
Just as tears threatened to fall, the knock came again along with a particularly bright flash of lightning. Lina cocked and eyebrow out the window and proceeded to unlock the door. A flash of sunlight gold and half- a-second later, the door closed with a rather loud noise. Lina stormed back to her seat and thunder roared violently outside.  
  
"Lina, Lina is everything ok? Can I come in Lina?" After a slight pause, the man behind the door opened it and peeked in the room, "Lina?" He took a step into the room and close the door softly, and found Lina scribbling something on a parchment.  
  
"What do you want jellyfish?"  
  
Gourry smiled, yup, Lina was ok. "I was wondering..." Lina arched an eyebrow while turning toward him and pushing the reading glasses she was wearing on top of her head, "Could I uh, stay in here for the night?"  
  
She sweatdropped, "Why?"  
  
Thunder crashed outside and Gourry cringed, Lina suddenly adopted a feral grin, "Great swordsman Gourry is afraid of a little thunderstorm?"  
  
"O-only at night, I just can't sleep when they come."  
  
"So you come in here?"  
  
"Well, I was hoping-" "You shouldn't expect things of people Gourry, it's not very polite."  
  
"But-" Gourry looked completely lost.  
  
"You can have the bed." Lina turned back to her work.  
  
"But, but aren't you gonna sleep?"  
  
"Maybe, I've got a lotta work to do."  
  
Gourry looked at her back a minute and decided to sit at the foot of the bed, resting his head against the footboard.  
  
"Gourry," Lina spoke without turning around, "What are you doing?"  
  
"Huh? Well, I'm not that tired really, and I just wanted company."  
  
"Uh huh."  
  
"Besides, it wouldn't be right if I fell asleep on the bed, what if you got tired? Where would you sleep?"  
  
Lina turned somewhat red, "Right here probably."  
  
"But Lina-" Silence reigned when Gourry cut himself off. Rain pounded on the roof and windows outside, creating an almost ethereal aura about the silence. Lightening flashed bright across the sky and a second later, thunder crashed louder than ever. Gourry jumped so that his head smacked the footboard rather unpleasantly.  
  
Pain tears built up at the corners of his eyes as he held his head, seething. Lina turned in her chair and regarded him, "Gourry, are you-" she stopped abruptly when Gourry whispered a curse to himself and lashed out at the board.  
  
Swinging his fist over in a flash of pain induced rage, Gourry struck the board and smashed it to splinters.  
  
Lina sat utterly still, her mouth agape, amazed at the fact that Gourry was even capable of such anger, any for that matter. She was barely able to process thought, let alone talk. 'If he can do that to a solid wooden footboard...makes me rethink sockin' hm when he forgets stuff.'  
  
Gourry looked at the mess of the bed, "Oops."  
  
Lina's anger flared, forgetting all her previous thoughts, she set about beating the crap out of him, "You idiot! Now no one has a place to sleep! Jellyfish brained-"  
  
"But Lina, you said you were gonna sleep in the chair."  
  
Lina stepped away from him seething. Suddenly, a dangerous calm came to her, "Gourry, go back to your room." Thunder crashed again and Gourry flinched.  
  
"Uh, I kinda forgot I locked the key in my room."  
  
Lina's face went even redder, "I'm going to get another key then," and she started for the door.  
  
"Lina, we can't wake the innkeeper! It's the middle of the night!"  
  
"I'm surprised you're even aware of that!"  
  
"Lina, quiet down please, you're gonna wake everyone!"  
  
"I don't care...mmph mph."  
  
Gourry put a hand over her mouth and an arm around her waist and picked her up. Lina blushed angrilly but Gourry didn't seem to notice. He kicked the mattress from the broken bedframe onto the floor and lay down with Lina.  
  
"What do you think you're doing! Lemme go pervert!"  
  
"Pervert?" Gourry held on as Lina tried to get away, "you gotta sleep. All work and no sleep will make you crankier than you already are."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lina struggled more but found the dense swordsman had an iron grip around her, it didn't take her long after that revelation to find that Gourry had already fallen asleep.  
  
"Stupid jellyfish-" A yawn escaped her mouth, betraying how tired she really was. "No, I've got too much work to do, I can't sleep..." And with that, Lina snuggled closer to Gourry to keep warm, and fell asleep.  
  
***  
  
Amelia opened the door softly, knowing very well she could get a fireball right in the face for not knocking, but Lina hadn't been down for breakfast and neither had Gourry, and that had worried Zelgadiss and her immensely.  
  
The first thing Amelia noticed was the broken bed and scattered , ink- stained parchments, her heart leapt into her throat, "Oh no-" then cut herself off when she saw Gourry, a smile on his sleeping face with his fingers entangled gently in Lina's hair. Lina had her arms securely encircling Gourry's neck.  
  
"Amelia, Gourry's not-"  
  
"Sh!" Amelia scowled at him and shoved out of the doorway, closing the door with a soft 'click'.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
a/n: hello again! one more of my little short stories! well, this one's kinda....odd, and it has an alternate ending that'll be out just a bit later, just gota type it, but i wanted to get this up first. for all those curious, i haven't given up on mythos, just waiting for inspiration to strike me again, i haven't been in the writing mood lately and i've gota get my mojo back, but it's comin so i will have it out. make sure to check out the alternate ending! 


	2. Alt Ending

SPELLS OF MIDNIGHT ALTERNATE ENDING:  
  
~~Disclaimer~~ like ah said before, don't own, sorry~  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ "Gourry letme go! Come on!"  
  
Strong, harsh winds blew through cracks in the window and blew all of the candles out, Lina jumped, forgetting about her position for just a second.  
  
Feeling her jump, Gourry held her closer, "It's ok Lina."  
  
She turned toward him, ,a wonderous look on her face. Lightening flashed across his face for but a second, but to Lina, it was forever. The lightning illuminated his features so that he looked ethereally gorgeous, she was almost dumbfounded looking into endless crystaline blue pools of compassion only felt, on this level, for her.  
  
He snuggled closer to her and whispered gently into her ear, "It's alright Lina." As he pulled away, it was as if a revelation had come to her. Maybe it was the storm, or the fact that the lights went out, or just the ethereal nature of the moment, but Lina found out more about herself in that moment than she had ever known any time before. "Gourry, I, I l-love you."  
  
For a while Gourry just smiled at her as if considering. Lina looked into his eyes, searching, knowing that she needed this more than anything else in the universe right now. She needed this so much that she wasn't even breathing.  
  
And then he kissed her. Thunder crashed overhead, rain pounded harder, almost like an applauding sound, and wind blew harder through the cracks of the window. Swirling around them, Lina thought she heard the wind whiper to her, she cocked an eye open.  
  
"Know this my child, you challenge the Lord of Nightmares, I will take you up on your offer, and I will win."  
  
'I don't think I lost mother, i think I won,' and she returned to the kiss.  
  
The wind blew out of the room, rain ceased, and the storm passed. Moonlight shimmered through the window, illuminating Lina and Gourry cuddled together sleeping happily.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
a/n: this is the alternate ending, i suppose you could slap this on before amelia finds them, but then things'd get mixed up a bit. to be honest, i couldn't decide on fwhich ending to put so i did both of them, tell me which one you liked, or if you even liked the story at all! comments/questions/concerns? review me and i'll answer ya, or email if ya dun wanna review. 


End file.
